Giroud set to stay at Chelsea, but does not have extension option — report

A few days ago, Olivier Giroud claimed in an interview with French media that he has the option of “another year” at Chelsea, which was the first time we had heard about any such arrangement in his current contract. While Giroud has had extension-options built into previous contracts, it was understood that there wasn’t another one after Chelsea had activated the option last summer.

Contrary to Giroud’s own claims however, Goal’s Nizaar Kinsella’s reporting that there is in fact no such option to extend the deal. So that’s an intriguing little situation then, with one of the sides potentially operating under incorrect assumptions. (Or perhaps the difference stems from some technical nuance, like Giroud talking about what he can initiate and the report talking about what Chelsea may do. Thiago Silva’s extension option is a “mutual option” for example, while the option in Giroud’s contract last summer was a “club option”.)

Either way, what everyone seems to agree on is that Giroud is staying in January thankfully, even if he’s garnering interest from the likes of defending Serie A champions Juventus and current Serie A leaders AC Milan.